Celebrating National Hot Dog Day

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Janet Riley, also known as the Queen of Wien

Meet the Queen of Wien: Janet Riley, former president of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, now v-p of communications at Maple Leaf – and someone whose admonishment of a spectator who threw a hot dog at golf star Tiger Woods a few years ago made headlines everywhere.

“The use of an iconic food in an act of violence against an iconic golfer like Tiger Woods is reprehensible – and a violation of hot dog etiquette,” said Riley. “Hot dogs are meant to be enjoyed – not weaponized.”

Hot dog, frank, red hot, wiener dog – they all mean a national institution served on a bun. And certainly not to be used as a weapon, but enjoyed with a million favourite toppings. Hot dogs have been part of our culinary landscape since the first one was sold from a food cart in New York City back in the mid 1860s (although history dates it as far back as Homer’s Odyssey).

Today we’re celebrating all things wiener with National Hot Dog Day and, as a nation, this is one of our favourite foods: Nielsen MarketTrack research shows more than 950 million (or 36,364,906 kilos) of hot dogs were sold at retail over the past year in Canada alone. More hot dogs were purchased at retail in Ontario than any other province last year – while Saskatchewan generated the largest proportion of google searches for hot dogs over the past five years compared to other provinces.

You can be a purist with just a touch of yellow mustard, or go all out and throw in everything near and dear to your tastebuds. Riley says it’s understood Americans don’t slather ketchup on their dogs while in Canada, it’s the patriotic thing to do. But never, ever call a hot dog a sandwich!